Here are three things colleges don’t need to read about in a letter of recommendation from your teacher:
1. The grade you earned in the class.
It’s helpful for a college to learn about your level of achievement relative to the other students in class, but colleges have your transcript. So they don’t need a letter of recommendation to tell them you got an "A."
2. The activities you’re involved in.
You list your activities on your application. So there’s no need for your teacher to elaborate on what you do outside of the classroom.
3. How well your teacher knows you.
Maybe your teacher is also your yearbook advisor, or knows your family, or coached your little league baseball team when you were 12. That’s all fine, but none of that needs to be explained in an academic letter of recommendation.
So, what’s left? Colleges want to know the academic story behind your grade in the class.
What are you like in the classroom? Do you ask questions? Do you contribute to class discussions? Do you seem genuinely interested in learning the material? Did you struggle in the class but work like crazy to improve your grade? Did you do an interesting project or complete outside reading on your own or stop by to talk about the material with your teacher after class?
That’s the information that tells colleges what you’re going to be like in their classrooms. And your teachers are the only ones who can share it.
If you had to get a letter of recommendation today, which teacher could tell your academic story? And what could you do differently to make their job easier?
You can do a lot more now to change the answers to those questions than you’ll be able to do once you start filling out applications.